Sessions

Monday, 20 June 2011

Beau And The Arrows - Interview

South east London quartet Beau and the Arrows have been making waves in new music and received high praise from 6music presenter Steve Lamacq. They've been doing live gigs in London for a couple of years and formed in 2008 just after Beau was recovering from throat surgery. Beau gives us further insight into the band;

Your debut album 'Future Kicks' is due this summer, will there be material on there similar to your singles?Well we hope to release the album in the summer. We don't really have a set date at the moment but nevertheless, the songs on the album will be similar to the singles that we have already released.We feel we have a few really big anthems but also some really meaningful love songs on there too. We want the album to really flow well so we had to be careful when picking the setlist for the album.

How did it feel when you were signed to Happy Release Records?Great! I mean we all knew that we were not going to be rich and famous over night but understood that this was a big step up from being an unsigned act and that more opportunities would come our way.

What is your favourite London venue to play at?Tough one, but I would say The Dublin Castle or The Old Queens Head. Both good venues with a lot of atmosphere.

How do you balance your varying musical influences when writing music? Well I (Beau) tend to lead the pack so to speak when it comes to writing the music. It’s mainly me that brings a lot of the ideas to the table and then the rest of the band chip in when needed. From being able to play a lot of various instruments, I have been able to blend different sounds together which has given Beau and the Arrows a fairly diverse sound.

Do certain places in South East London inspire your music? Yeah absolutely. At times especially when it’s pouring with rain, London looks gritty and when your feeling low, you tend to write very down beat material. But on the flip side, the area we live in is at times so beautiful and that in turn makes me and Jasmine write really cheerful innocent pop songs.

What are your favourite bands right now?Not many. Erm... to be honest a lot of bands I listen to are old post punk bands from the 80s. It’s sad to say but I find it ever so hard to be a fan of new bands these days. There’s a lot of crap out there but if you look close enough you will find a few hidden gems. I guess the only new band we are really into at the moment is Warpaint. Their song "Undertow" really touched us and made us fall in love with them.